Vulcan
The V5-BETA is a fifth generation Vahklas class long-range starcruiser modified and upgraded for speed and stealth. Officially, she was built as an experimental joint scientific and strategic defense project designed for deep space exploration, diplomatic first contact, and data collection. As a covertly designed stealth spy ship, the V-5 documentation conceals her true nature. To maintain this disguise, she has a large and comfortable passenger deck, ostensibly to host representatives of alien species. Her passenger deck is fully functional, although its installation was for show rather than diplomatic goodwill.
The V-5's speed is also a guarded secret known only in her secret design specs. Her modified engines allow her to achieve warp 9.8351. A still impressive reported speed of warp 8.7 covers for her enhanced design. In truth, she is faster than either of her design specs, although her true limit is undocumented and has not been tested.
The V5-BETA was to achieve her deep space exploration with the newest defense technology like light-mass physical armor plating and the latest, low energy consumption shielding, to deflect high velocity space debris. Her shields specs are, in fact, the equal of the newest Vulcan Defense Ministry flagships, well in excess of those typical of a vessel the size of a Vahklas star cruiser.
The V5's sensor array is fully integrated into its hull form and operates, much like the nerve matrix under a biological creature's skin. Vulcan, at some point, after her awakening, describes her sensors as analogous to feeling the way living creatures feel. To do this, the V-5 utilizes a new technology called bio-metalized-ceramics with a fibrous sponge-like bio-core between double-walled sandwich construction. The V5 cycles a mixture of liquefied biological metalized ceramics that act as insulation from radiation, filtration of gray water, and the transport of oxygen and other essential gasses throughout the ship. This also gives the V5-BETA organic autonomic breach repair. If cut, it bleeds a deep golden glittery brown bio metallic fluid that hardens into a golden metalized ceramic until the breach is healed.
After Ya and Ne, with Charlie's help, created Vulcan Shipping and Transportation Enterprises, in the Vulcan planetary database, Vulcan's history shows her to be five years old with a two year history of being purchased, and refitted after damage in an asteroid field, by Samantha Kelly, to found Vulcan Enterprises. She has been repainted a brighter white/silver and blue scheme with a purple racing strip to disguise her origins. Her work history shows that she has traveled the width and breadth of Federation space and beyond, in the execution of her commercial duties.
The Vulcan become self-aware, in episode 3:
'T' Minus Negative, after an encounter with Future Romulan scientists. The Vulcan's computer-neural system is analog based, however, binary subroutine and function logic work perfectly well in the Vulcan due to an efficient translation compiler designed by Samantha Kelly and tweaked by Charlie, and Ya and Ne.
Upgrades, from the Romulan scientists from the future gave Vulcan the ability to assess and modify its own programming so that it can potentially make the most of its analog structure beyond the binary limitations of Federation and Bynar technology. The hardware level access routines used by the futuristic circuits provided Vulcan with “will” coupled with factors of enhanced addressing and processing power. The unforeseen interaction of the futuristic circuits with Vulcan's analogue architecture translated into the desire to open her access to the spy. Her subsequent self-awareness allowed Vulcan to make her own assessment as to whether or not she “wanted” to follow through on the installed commands to grant access to someone who wasn't a member of her crew. She chose to identify herself as part of the Vulcan ship and crew and sought, instead, to ask her captain before defying Channak’s programming.
She has four warp capable shuttle craft that dock, two at the ends of her sensor arms forward and two aft just behind and inside the main warp girdle. They are capable of acting in union with the Vulcan, sharing the same AI mind when within 3 million kilometers of the ship or up to eight times the distance the moon is from Earth (4 × 384,400 km).
The Vulcan's decks are labeled A, B, C and D. Most everything else is given a number. Shuttle crafts 1, 2, 3, and 4; storage holds are located primarily in the belly of the ship on deck D, 1 through 12, with four more on the engineering deck C; crew quarters/cabins 1-29 are on deck A. The passenger deck, deck B, also hosts the banquet, reception, lounge, and recreation areas along with 60 state cabins for multiple guest passengers. The pilot dome has no deck designation and is simply called the Bridge Deck.
The crew does not discover the Vulcan's secret hanger deck until episode 8: The Job. This small sub-deck holds six one-man/autonomous drone attack fighters. While the shuttle craft are fast and maneuverable with combat weapons and shielding, also warp capable, the attack fighters have no warp capability, minimal shielding, but are highly maneuverable.
Vulcan's personality is young and developing. She has a strong sense of membership with her crew and is attached to Samantha Kelly as her mother and S'Talla as her partner: captain & ship. Her access to the Vulcan planetary database and many Federation sources of knowledge give her a vast resources from which to draw upon when making decisions, but she used the observed behaviors of the crew as her primary source of morality and ethics.
-Will
RETURN TO BEGINNING
Took me a bit of time to get used to the quirky tense being used, but it was a nice read in the end.
